Book #33 for 2024: The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams
This was my third (at least) read of this book, and I'd forgotten quite how difficult how it was. Richard Adams is good at writing characters, but he does go off on tangents a lot, with his own thoughts (I am used to that from Watership Down).
Incidentally, I did notice that at one point he name-checked himself, and his most famous book; it's not something I'm fond of authors doing, but it didn't detract too much from the book.
I did watch the film version (starring John Hurt at Snitter) since my previous reading of the book, and had forgotten how it ended; I was glad it was more upbeat than the film's ambiguous denouement.
The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Rowf and Snitter are dogs who escape from an animal testing centre in the Lake District and start searching for a master, at Snitter's insistence. On their travels, they meet a character called the tod (a fox), who convinces them to live like wild dogs and spark of increasing hysteria as the "whitecoats" from the testing centre start searching for them, which leads to claims that they are carrying bubonic plague.
The story is told in large amounts of detail, and the sequence at the animal testing centre is quite long, and shocking in places, with the depictions of cruelty towards animals, a theme that recurs throughout the book. Once they escape, Snitter becomes confused because he does not recognise where they are, since he is used to living in a town, and starts asking where all the houses have gone. Snitter also has a head wound, as a result of the tests done on him, and it causes him to hallucinate at times throughout the story.
Both main characters are written very well, and they are easy to root for, and Snitter is given a strong backstory regarding how he was sold by his master's sister, the appropriately-named Annie Mossity, to the animal testing centre. The story is also written from the point of view of both animals and humans, as Richard Adams describes the reactions of various characters to the actions of the dogs. Similar to Richard Adams' most well-known novel, Watership Down, most of the human characters are very dislikeable, with an agenda that mostly revolves around catching or killing Rowf and Snitter. The relationship between Rowf, Snitter and the tod was enjoyable in the scenes that they had together, ranging from wanting to accept him as a leader to wanting to kill him.
The tone of the book is mostly serious, not surprisingly given the subject matter, although there are some humorous moments - and I'm fairly certain the acronym of the research centre - Animal Research, Scientific and Experimental was deliberate.
I found the book mostly enjoyable, although at times it got very long-winded, including a sequence near the end that dealt with the reactions of MPs in parliament to the events in the Lake District. Much of the book is also written in various Northern English accents (including the Tyneside accent that the tod speaks in), which some readers might find difficult to get used to. Personally, I think it is an absolute classic, but be prepared for a lot of very upsetting moments.
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Incidentally, I did notice that at one point he name-checked himself, and his most famous book; it's not something I'm fond of authors doing, but it didn't detract too much from the book.
I did watch the film version (starring John Hurt at Snitter) since my previous reading of the book, and had forgotten how it ended; I was glad it was more upbeat than the film's ambiguous denouement.
The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Rowf and Snitter are dogs who escape from an animal testing centre in the Lake District and start searching for a master, at Snitter's insistence. On their travels, they meet a character called the tod (a fox), who convinces them to live like wild dogs and spark of increasing hysteria as the "whitecoats" from the testing centre start searching for them, which leads to claims that they are carrying bubonic plague.
The story is told in large amounts of detail, and the sequence at the animal testing centre is quite long, and shocking in places, with the depictions of cruelty towards animals, a theme that recurs throughout the book. Once they escape, Snitter becomes confused because he does not recognise where they are, since he is used to living in a town, and starts asking where all the houses have gone. Snitter also has a head wound, as a result of the tests done on him, and it causes him to hallucinate at times throughout the story.
Both main characters are written very well, and they are easy to root for, and Snitter is given a strong backstory regarding how he was sold by his master's sister, the appropriately-named Annie Mossity, to the animal testing centre. The story is also written from the point of view of both animals and humans, as Richard Adams describes the reactions of various characters to the actions of the dogs. Similar to Richard Adams' most well-known novel, Watership Down, most of the human characters are very dislikeable, with an agenda that mostly revolves around catching or killing Rowf and Snitter. The relationship between Rowf, Snitter and the tod was enjoyable in the scenes that they had together, ranging from wanting to accept him as a leader to wanting to kill him.
The tone of the book is mostly serious, not surprisingly given the subject matter, although there are some humorous moments - and I'm fairly certain the acronym of the research centre - Animal Research, Scientific and Experimental was deliberate.
I found the book mostly enjoyable, although at times it got very long-winded, including a sequence near the end that dealt with the reactions of MPs in parliament to the events in the Lake District. Much of the book is also written in various Northern English accents (including the Tyneside accent that the tod speaks in), which some readers might find difficult to get used to. Personally, I think it is an absolute classic, but be prepared for a lot of very upsetting moments.
View all my reviews